1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical disk drive, and more particularly, to a tray locking mechanism for use in a slim optical disk drive.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, owing to progress of computer technology, prices of optical disk drives are becoming lower. Slim optical disk drives are used for storage devices of notebooks, and because of increasing demand for notebooks on the market the demand for slim optical disk drives is also increasing. In addition, owing to the progress of computer technology, reading speeds of optical disk drives are becoming faster. Please refer to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a drawing of a conventional slim optical disk drive in an unlocked situation. The conventional slim optical disk drive includes a main body 1, a tray 2, an ejection button 3, and a tray locking mechanism 10 installed under the tray 2. Please refer to FIG. 2 and FIG. 3. FIG. 2 is a drawing of the conventional slim optical disk drive in a locked situation. FIG. 3 is an enlargement of the tray locking mechanism 10 in FIG. 2. The tray locking mechanism 10 includes a gyratory arm 4, a locking arm 5, a solenoid valve arm 6, a piston 7, and an ejecting board 8. The main body 1 includes a pin 11.
Please refer to FIG. 4. FIG. 4 is an enlargement of the tray locking mechanism 10 when the tray 2 ejects from the conventional slim optical disk drive. When the ejection button 3 is pressed, the piston 7 moves in the “A” direction to push the solenoid valve arm 6 to rotate in the “B” direction. Subsequently the solenoid valve arm 6 pushes the locking arm 5 to rotate in the “B” direction, so the locking arm 5 can separate from the pin 11 on the main body 1 so that the tray 2 can be ejected. At that time, a user can draw out the tray 2 and put on or take off an optical disk.
Please refer to FIG. 5. FIG. 5 is an enlargement of the tray locking mechanism 10 when the tray 2 is loaded into the conventional slim optical disk drive. When the tray 2 is pushed into the tray locking mechanism 10, the gyratory arm 4 can touch the ejecting board 8 and rotate in the “B” direction so as to push forward the locking arm 5 and the solenoid valve arm 6 to rotate in the “C” direction. Then, the solenoid valve arm 6 pushes the piston 7 to move in the “D” direction back to the original location. Please refer to FIG. 6. FIG. 6 is an enlargement of the tray locking mechanism 10 when the tray 2 is locked. When the locking arm 5 rotates in the “C” direction to a certain position, the pin 11 on the main body 11 can stop the locking arm 5 and the tray 2 can be locked. However, sometimes the tray locking mechanism 10 in the prior art lodges so that the tray 2 cannot be ejected smoothly. Thus, there is a need for tray locking mechanism to solve this problem.